Consecrate

Joshua 3:5 records an interesting comment from Joshua as the people of Israel are on the cusp of entering the promised land after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.
5 Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."

That is a somewhat puzzling comment. The, "consecrate" part is not too hard to understand. It is actually translated as sanctify in other translations. I means specifically to set apart. Often it is set apart as particularly holy, but the concept is to be separated for a purpose, and, usually holy.

So the children of Israel were to set themselves apart. But it was not for the carrying out of God's work. Notice the words. "The Lord will do wonders among you." The setting apart is not to ready them to work for God. It is to ready them to observe, or witness, what God is going to do.

He does not need our help. We do not have to "clear the way" for Him to function. The Lord will do what He will do. What has to be cleared, or cleaned, is the observer. We do not interfere with God's "doing," but we may interfere with our witnessing of it. We may even participate in it, providing, again, that we are consecrated.

That is sobering, isn't it? How many times did God work, and we were not ready to receive or witness it? An old 60's joke went, "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"

Is that like a tree falling in the woods and nobody hearing? What if God works, and He does, but we are not prepared to witness it? We might even doubt that He worked. Consequently, we missed His work.

Joshua's injunction is relevant for us today, "Consecrate yourselves." You never know when God might work. Don't miss it.